114A On Ebay

see -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/114a-No-Gri...em338d97e8c3

I just don't see paying that much without a certificate. I have see many 114s that appear not to have a grill.

Some of the other auctions from this seller seem to have an unusually high number of bids as well... (13 bids for a used, badly off-centered 114??)

I agree, although everyone's threshold for wanting a certificate is different; mine is probably $400, though with some sellers it would be lower and others it would be higher.
Those 13 bids could be automatically placed by 2 or 3 folks seeking a space-filler ... you'd have to look at the history.

I'd like to hear Bill Weiss' opinion on this one.

I was under the impression that no one was expertizing used copies of this issue any more, but I can't find the source for my conclusion.

In short, I am in agreement with you. No way would I bid on this item without a certificate!

Brian

From what I have learned, no one will certify a used 114a.

Here's mine lol.

Hi folks! Here is the message I just sent to the ebay Stamp Reviewer regarding this stamp;

This is an ordinary #114 with grill pressed out. A 114a can not be sold without an expert certificate because it is rather easy to press out a grill. Further, to be considered a 114a, the stamp must be unused with OG. To be considered a reissue (#125) it must have a post-1875 recognizable cancel AND have rich color and impression commonly found on the reissue. This is neither a 114a or #125. But the bidders don't know any better,so please remove it or cancel the sale. Thanks. Bill

Jeesh Bill, buzz kill...LOL. I believe you may have saved someone a large amount of cash!

Is this the only U.S. stamp that is rarer without a grill then it is with one?

Bill is, of course, dead right.

$489 last I looked? Jeez.... That's a nice 3c that someone almost certainly pressed a grill out of (Which isn't too hard to do wither).

Bill

It was just last week I was reading the Swedish Tiger website about these and thinking it totally makes sense wanting to have og. Here is a what-if scenario that ocurred to me (because I like to dream big). If I found (while not sleeping) a no-grill 114 (i.e. 114a) on cover, and it was sweated off by an expertiser, would it still have enough gum left to verify it was a 114a?

I just want to make it clear that just because I reported this to ebay does not necessarily guarantee that they will stop the sale. I have come to clearly see that in some ways, ebay is as "evil" as some of the sellers who purposely offer fraudulent stamps on their site. I resigned from the ebay Stamp Community Watch in 2010 specifically because I observed in the years I was a member of that group, that ebay tends to let bigger sellers get away with fraudulent listings, while usually cracking down on smaller sellers. I can provide lots of evidence of this if necessary. That is, if any consumer protection office or organization truly cared about how ebay violates their own Stamp Selling Policies all the time by allowing sellers to list their wares without providing an accurate description of them. But what I've found is that, alas, no-one truly cares, so spending a lot of time lamenting ebay's evil behavior is also pointless.

"If I found (while not sleeping) a no-grill 114 (i.e. 114a) on cover, and it was sweated off by an expertiser, would it still have enough gum left to verify it was a 114a?";

Probably........:>)

Well said Mr. Weiss, and thanks for a good laugh as well.

Yea, but it has Free Shipping! lol

Maybe the winner wiil pay for it out of the Million Dollars he has waiting for him in Nigeria.

It couldn't even be expertized because it's a used example. My personal thoughts are that it is most certainly a 144 with a pressed out grill. I have 2 114's right now that I can't find a grill on but just knowing the figures of how many 114a's was made, sold and destroyed sort of leaves you thinking it's an almost impossibility to find one mint let alone used! If it was used it was most-likely used by a stamp dealer of the period. In short, I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Weiss.

It seems the ebay listing in the original post no longer links to the stamp we're discussing, so it must have been removed from sale, probably thanks to the reporting by Mr. Weiss.

The only one I see is one for $2